Jailbreak

Chapter 3: Jay

The years pass by.

I am now 13. Raven is 15.

The city does not change at all - it is as deserted and rusty as ever.

But there are small changes here and there, letting us know that time does actually move within the Dome.

For one thing, I have grown, and I mean upwards, not sideways. Raven still towers over me, but as he's two years older than myself, I've kind of accepted it that I'll never overtake him.

Other than my height, there is another thing that has changed.

"Jay, can you pass me those metal sheets over there?"

"These ones?"

"Yeah, those. Thanks."

We're building the aeroplane.

Our shop, being one for repairing machinery, provides us with all the necessary tools. For the metal, we use all the scraps we've collected from the mechanisms our customers have brought in over the years. We have more than enough rusty gear and cog wheels , so we use a blowtorch to melt down the metal - and voilà! - we have the perfect scraps of metal to build our aeroplane.

It is difficult to imagine that this chunk of metal before us will actually ever fly, to free us from this nightmare of a place - but what is life without a bit of off-the-scale imagination?

"How's it going, boys?"

We both turn our heads as Anna Kuina, Raven's mother, comes bustling in with two mugs of warm milk. She's off work today, and seems to be delighted to be able to spend some time with us at home.

"Thanks Anna," I smile as she hands me a mug. Anna grins, and gives Raven a mug too, who accepts it with a grunt.

My parents were killed when I was seven. When they died, Anna and Jack, Raven's parents, took me in without one annoyed look. The raised me in love, as if I was their real child, and never complained about the extra work I caused them. They told me off when I did something bad, and praised me when I did something good. They even told me to call them by their first names, because no child calls his parents by their surnames.

Of course, I still miss my parents - I probably will forever more - but being with Anna and Jack makes me forget my sadness. They make me smile, laugh... I love them, and I know with all my heart, that they love me too.

Anna sits down on the floor, leaning against the dirty wall. She stares up at us as we busily move around the workshop, grabbing tools and parts, our milk already forgotten and slowly growing colder.

Raven grabs the blowtorch from the work table, meaning to heat up the big sheet of metal I'd passed to him a moment before. He pulls down a pair of worn goggles around his forehead over his eyes – a worn pair matching to the ones I wear around my neck.

It was a present from Anna and Jack when we first told them we were going to build the aeroplane. I still remember that day clearly, being worried that the adults won't allow us to break the rules of the Dome, wondering if we should build the plane in complete secrecy. We were overjoyed when Anna and Jack told us that they would help us in every way they could. In fact, I got a bit misty-eyed, though I'll never tell that to Raven, because he would definitely use it as a source to make fun of me. As if he doesn't have enough already.

"I'm jealous of you two."

Suddenly Anna opens her mouth from her spot on the floor, and I look at her, confused. Raven continues to heat up the sheet of metal, but he replies, "Hah? What do you mean?"